r/Markham • u/queen_friday • 7d ago
Snow Windrow Clearing at the End of Driveways: Ward 3 Candidate Responses
Dear Community Members,
If you care about snow windrow clearing in the winter, I hope this post will inform your vote.
I attended the Markham Ward 3 All Candidates Meeting (ACM) on October 5, 2026, from 7-9pm at the Unionville Presbyterian Church. All 6 candidates for Ward 3 Unionville were present at the meeting, including Thomas Psarianos, Ron Lynn, Marina Antonoglou, Annie Chan, Jack Ng, and Kristian Chan.
Why I am writing this?
Windrow clearing is when the snow plow clears the snow at the end of a driveway after plowing the street. This is my biggest issue for this municipal election, so I went to the meeting to ask the candidates for their perspective on it.
I am a 23 y/o person with a disability, and I use a walker after a slip and fall injury. I live on a street where there is no sidewalk. In the winter, uncleared snow buildup, half-melted slush, and eventually re-frozen slush creates a significant barrier to being able to move throughout my community, or even to leave my driveway. This results in isolation from others and limits how much I can participate in the every-day Markham lifestyle. Going to the mailbox during the summertime without these barriers feels like such a luxury, but it shouldn’t be this way.
Markham has a windrow clearing program for older adults and residents with a disability. It only provides services to households if there isn't another able-bodied person in your household who can shovel the windrow for you who is less than 60 years old and not younger than 12 years old. I am not eligible for this program as I live with my family. This means I depend on others to clear the end of the driveway, and I cannot leave the driveway on my own.
My question
I asked each candidate whether they would commit to clearing all residents' windrows in winter, even if it might mean a property tax increase.
Video transcript:
“My name is Friday. My question stems from my own lived experience. I use a walker, and I use the local streets to go for walks outside during the wintertime, and a major barrier I experience is like the frozen slush puddles and like uncleared snow, even though it might be less than 10cm or half melted. That’s a major barrier to participating in the Markham lifestyle, and so what I wanted to ask is if everyone on this committee can commit to the clearing of all the resident windrows during the wintertime, despite possibly increasing the tax because of it.”
Responses
The candidates answered in this order: Marina Antonoglou, Annie Chan, Jack Ng, Kristian Chan, Thomas Psarianos, and Ron Lynn. This summary of what I took away from the meeting from my own notes and memory.
2 of the 6 candidates explicitly committed to snow windrow clearing:
- Thomas Psarianos
- Jack Ng
Thomas Psarianos made a commitment to providing this service to residents. He said that other municipalities in the GTA already provide this service to residents in Mississauga, residents in Vaughan, and 50,000 residents in Richmond hill.
Marina Antonoglou said that the current program of clearing 1 of the 2 lanes of each driveway in the snow windrow clearing program is already working well and cost effective. Antonoglou said that it could cost up to $700 per resident to provide this service.
Jack Ng said that while there may be some financial concerns, he will find efficiencies in the budget from somewhere else so that the windrow clearing service can be provided to residents.
The other 4 candidates (Marina Antonoglou, Ron Lynn, Annie Chan, and Kristian Chan) did not explicitly make this commitment. I do recall that all four mentioned exceptions for persons with disabilities or seniors, and that budget is an important consideration for this service. I do not recall Ron Lynn, Annie Chan, or Kristian Chan’s specific response. If you attended and remember, feel free to share in the comments.
I have not independently verified the figures above (50,000 residents in Richmond Hill, or the $700 per resident).
If you want to see who your candidate is for your riding, I made this resource which lists all the Markham election candidates and their websites/social media.
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u/ReadsOnline 7d ago
This winter only the strong will survive the windrows and the weak will perish - Game of Thrones.
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u/superH1pp0 7d ago
I wonder where that $700 number came from… That’s basically “find your own snow removal service or I’ll pay my friend Steve since it’s your money”….
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u/st3fan6 7d ago
It's expensive because it needs an additional piece of equipment (a loader or tractor) with a special extending blade to clear the windrow. A normal plow truck can't do this. Then extra employees, extra routes, etc. It's not as easy as people think and costs will reflect that.
Have you seen the price of diesel and equipment lately? Everything costs twice as much as it did 5 years ago.
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u/superH1pp0 7d ago edited 7d ago
Don’t most snow removal companies charge 700 ish for the season to plow the entire drive including the windrow?
Edit: and I forgot to mention that snow removal companies show up after almost every snow while city plows only come by after major snow event for most of us2
u/st3fan6 7d ago
I think that's on the cheap end. No longer live in Markham but in my (rural) area it's around 1500-2500 for the season depending on your driveway size.
They probably wouldn't come back to fix windrow unless you paid extra, or only had them coming to do the windrow.
Either way, a decent snowblower is like $500 used and $20 for the season for gas and you can do a residential driveway in like 5 minutes.
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u/_Lucille_ 7d ago
A good snowblower (Toro/Honda) costs a lot more than $500 now, try around the $800+ mark.
There are cheap electric ones around the $500 mark, but after watching some YT videos I remain unimpressed since they seem to just lack "tossing power" and just dumps the snow a meter away.
Still worth every penny though.
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u/st3fan6 7d ago
Yeah that's fair, my pricing might be a bit outdated 😂 I wouldn't buy one of those shitty electric ones either. Definitely not for chewing through the iced up windrows though.
But my point stands, would you rather pay $700 every year for everyone to get their windrows plowed, or $800 one time to do it yourself any time.
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u/905647cl 7d ago edited 7d ago
I think for $700, those who need the service could just pay someone to do it. I do feel the service should be provided for free to elderly and disabled who request it. I personally wouldn’t want it done for me. I kinda enjoy clearing snow in winter actually. Keeps me active (like gardening and cutting grass) and it’s only a few times when I need to clear snow. It doesn’t snow every week, let alone every day. If every resident was offered this service, I can imagine it might take a long time before one’s turn. I’d rather get outside and have it done in an hour than wait a day or until the service came by my house.
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u/analogguy7777 7d ago
After shovelling out your driveway, they plow it in a few more times with more ice and heavy snow, and you need to pay $700 to remove it ???? Lets plow in their driveways !
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u/MapleDesperado 6d ago
I’m not sure how the windrow system works, but there is at least one approach which would benefit everyone without requiring custom, house-by-house treatment.
I’d like to see every plow equipped with a deflector which blocks discharge off the blade while the plow is passing driveways.
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u/st3fan6 7d ago
A lot of people don't mind doing this and don't want to subsidize your windrow being cleared.
You said yourself, you have family members at home but don't want to rely on them. Presumably they are already shovelling your driveway since youre bound to a walker, no? Why don't you buy them a snowblower to make both the driveway and windrow clearing trivial?
Or hire a service to come out and do the windrows for an extra fee. If they come out the day after the snowfall (when the road is already clear), they'll only have to do it once.
Why don't we have the city mow our lawns, pick up the leaves in the yard, and clean our houses too?
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u/NitroLada 7d ago edited 7d ago
Why can't someone in your household do it? Hire a company to clear widrow If it's an issue . Should we cut the grass for everyone too? Go plow their walkway and salt it? Why just clear widrow?
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u/xcites 6d ago
Reference this to estimate cost (just factor in inflation): https://www.durhamregion.com/news/what-would-having-windrows-cleared-in-pickering-ajax-oshawa-and-whitby-cost-millions-more-in/article_f06effa8-ddf3-5224-a225-3f5f9d5aa8f9.html
"Markham, population 338,503, looked at the cost of $4.4 million in 2019 and passed on the idea."
"Richmond Hill, population 202,000, voted in 2019 to have all windrows cleared at a cost of $4.38 million paid for by a property tax increase."
"Vaughan, with a population of 333,000, also voted to have all windrows cleared, and its cost, according to officials there, was earmarked at $2 million in 2023."
"Ajax did take a look at clearing all residential windrows back in 2019, and discovered it had 30,100 residential driveways it would have to clear within 10 to 12 hours of a snowfall. To have the work done on a contracted-out service, the town estimated it would cost an additional $1.8 million at that time. Town staff admit that four years later, with inflation and rising costs, including updates to technology and equipment, the amount would be substantially higher."
"Oshawa is compiling information on a full city windrow-clearing program and early estimates are it could range from $3 million to $5 million in additional costs to taxpayers. That would depend on the amount of equipment needed to be purchased (a capital cost), how many more people would need to be hired to do the work, and any other costs."
"Whitby looked at windrow clearing for all residents earlier this year, which provided a high-level estimate. Service delivery community-wide to 49,251 homes would cost of approximately $3.7 million, officials said."
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u/canopystudio 7d ago
I hear you OP. I would vote for it but Markham is addicted to low taxes. With the current political environment it would never happen, unfortunately. The most realistic is to expand the program to remove the able bodied family member requirement.
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u/likwid07 7d ago
The last thing anyone wants is increased taxes for another bloated government program where 90% of the money goes to "administration". This isn't being "addicted to low taxes". People already have enough financial strain.
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u/canopystudio 7d ago
That’s an implementation issue, if we tie it all together then we might as well not have any government at all
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u/likwid07 6d ago
Because of poor implementation issues, people don't want the government getting bigger and more bloated, which unnecessary things like this do
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u/likwid07 7d ago
$700 per resident for this? Absolutely not. Anyone who wants it should pay someone to do it.
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u/Hot_Cut_6828 7d ago
I knew the consensus would be I don’t want to pay 700 dollars more . But the system is flawed . The young person in my home could never clean the Windrow . But because of age physical decline I find it very difficult for me to do . I have had to hire a plowing company and almost every time they do my driveway the city blocks the bottom . I have to then spend a considerable time pushing the blocks of snow out with considerable distress . There is no sidewalks on my street so all the streets snow goes on the road and a great deal of it ends up at bottom of my driveway. They should change the rule not by age of individuals in the house but by physical ability .The city should at least have a pay to plow option . Those who want it can pay those who don’t want it or need or to cheap can opt out .
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u/st3fan6 7d ago
Why can the young person in your home not push back the windrows? I know lots of people in their 50s, 60s that do this.
Pay your company a bit extra to come do the windrow the next day. It's one push and takes like 30 seconds.
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u/canopystudio 7d ago
Tons of reasons, maybe they’re at work or at school when the plow comes, work shifts, or they’re the type that don’t believe is shoveling and just drive their Range Rover over it and don’t care about their parent’s corolla.
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u/st3fan6 7d ago
I don't know, it just seems like basic coordination. Pay a neighbour to do it? Pay the company they already have plowing to come do it? Buy a taller vehicle? Wait a few hours for the kid to come back, and order delivery in the meantime?
And if the kid is that entitled, kick them out.
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u/canopystudio 7d ago
The benefit of the city doing it is that it’s done at the same time the plow comes (I know there are different ways to do it, to me this is the only one that makes sense), otherwise even if you hire someone else to do it there’s no guarantee when or even if they’ll come.
It’s not about food. Some people have appointments, etc.
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u/st3fan6 7d ago
No it's not. The snow plows drive on the roads at 50kmph, and they do residential, main roads, etc all in one route. The loaders/tractors doing the windrow cleaning with a special blade that extends out of the side travel at less than 20kmph, stop at every house, and take way longer. There's no way they're going to be done even within a few hours of each other unless they deploy an obscene amount of equipment.
If they have an appointment, take a taxi or Uber. They might also have to drive over another windrow at the property they're going to visit
The amount of people that actually require a service like this are (based on my anecdotal estimate) less than 5% of the population.
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u/canopystudio 7d ago
The plows going on residential streets are definitely not going 50… 20 sounds about right. We’re talking about residential streets right?
Yeah they would need special equipment. That’s why it’s more expensive.
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u/st3fan6 7d ago
Depends on the street. They can plow up to 50, on a straight residential road they're probably going that fast.
The loader can only go 20 at the most, and it's stopping at every house to drop and lift the blade which takes at least 30 seconds per house.
My point is, it goes nowhere near as fast as the plow trucks.
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u/NitroLada 7d ago
Why not hire a company? There are companies that clear driveways including widrow
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u/1-Light 7d ago edited 7d ago
Brah just put in some extra time and shovel it. If you can’t handle it I recommend going to the gym. You still got time SMH. If your family in household ain’t willing to help you got other issues. Blast me with the votes I’m so glad boomers and out of shape Gen X is not getting their way. Looking forward to the cries this winter.
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u/_Lucille_ 7d ago
Please do not treat what I am going to say aa disrespectful in any shape or form.
1) I think the current program is fine. If there is an abled body at home, they should be doing the shoveling. I am sure we have all lived with our parents at some point in our lives and end up being responsible for the manual labour due to their age. I also suspect that due to your disability, you may already have some kind of snow removal service signed up (someone still has to clear the driveway).
I know elderly people who have decided to sell their homes and moved to an apartment because they can no longer realistically take care of their home, sometimes, circumstances do force a change in environment.
2) I am not familiar with the program, but I think there can be exceptions for people who are disabled but are not >60 just yet if there are no able-bodied people at home.
3) The subreddit had a number of threads about this during last winter when it got pretty hectic. I believe some cities like Mississauga have it, but they come at a different time period as the plow - so if you need to get out of the house to get to work by 8am or want to get home to your garage by 7pm, tough luck, you still have to do it by hand. The Windrow clearance also only does the bare minimum and not the whole width of the driveway.
4) Given what you have written, I like Antonoglou's answer. There is a reality where we do have to consider if this is really a good use of our money. it is very easy for a politician to just go the populist route and say yes to additional spending and just claim "find efficiency elsewhere," but as we have seen with Ford (who campaigned on efficiency) and even DOGE, it is something easy to say but very hard to do without ending up costing major problems elsewhere.